The Melting Pot

Congratulations to Jason, who graduated from his MD/PhD program last month!  After the graduation, we met at the Melting Pot for dinner.  With some trepidation, as we had our kids in tow.  A dinner at The Melting Pot includes a salad and three courses of fondue and is at least a 3 hour affair.  But the Rupp kids and a few friends were there as well, so we hoped they would keep each other entertained.

We had a great time.  Great company and good food!

The first course was awesome.  Bread with three types of cheese dip.  Skewers in the hands of a two year old, three year old and five year old in close proximity to each other added a new dimension of excitement, but no one came away with a permanent injury.

Course #2 was significantly less entertaining for the smaller crowd.  I took them outside to run off some energy and kill time. 

With the help of smart phones and multiple trips to the bathroom (the waitress was very proficient at keeping us stocked with lemonade), we made it through course 2 and the long wait to the promised chocolate course. 

Which was, of course, the best part of the night.  We ate til we could eat no more.  Kitty discovered that there was a grandma in the room (Jason's mom), and Kitty didn't leave her side the rest of the evening. 

Kitty's last day of school

For Kitty's last day of school, the class put on a little program for parents and had a special snack time.  Three years ago, I missed Boo's program when she was in the 2's class because I was in the hospital trying to not have Kitty 10 weeks too soon. I was glad to be there this time around.

Here she is, not participating in the program.  :)  My mom says Boo didn't participate in hers either.

She was, however, very into the prayer before snack.

She had such an excellent experience this year and wonderful teachers.  We will miss them and are already looking forward to next year.

Something is missing...

Tuesday, March 27th.

Boo was eating apple slices for snack at preschool, and out came her first loose tooth.  I think she didn't know what it was, so she brushed it off the table.  It had clicked by the time I came to pick her up (her gymnastics teacher noticed right away that it was missing), so we went back to the classroom to try and find it.  I was pretty sure it was gone, but one of the teachers helped us and we found it right away.  The office secretary heard us talking about it and ran out with a little tooth treasure box for Boo to keep her tooth in.

Boo wanted to keep her tooth, so she wrote a sweet note to the tooth fairy asking if she could please keep her tooth and left it under her pillow with the tooth.  The tooth fairy is nice like that, so Boo had cash and a tooth in the morning.

At the end of May, she lost her second tooth.  Eating, again.  This time it was just a sandwich.  Lucky for everyone she felt it come out and I only had to pull it off her tongue.  No swallowed tooth.

No adult teeth coming in yet, but both top teeth are loose and some side ones as well.

Mother's Day Breakfast

Boo's preschool class had a Mother's Day breakfast during the last week of school.

The breakfast area was decorated with the kids' art, and there were preschooler crafted gifts for us by our places at the table.  We enjoyed our Panera bagels and egg souffle, and then an informal picture frenzy began. Some of these kids have been with Boo for three or four years.  We've done birthday parties and play dates.  They are all such good kids and Boo has had such a great experience with them.

After breakfast and pictures, Boo's teacher read a short paragraph on each mom that had been dictated by the kids.  They were, of course, entertaining and touching.  In hers, Boo mentioned how much she loves peanut butter balls, and how Kitty picks out the chocolate chips and leaves the rest.  

It was so close to the end of school, it was also a celebration of finishing prek and moving on to kindergarten.  The kids sang us several songs, included an absolutely adorable one their teacher had written about all they had learned that year and how they were ready to move on to kindergarten.

Kindergarten, here we come!

Spring Soccer

We finally did it.

We signed Boo up for spring soccer.

It's over now, so I can say it was a good experience for all of us.

J ended up as head coach of her team last minute because they had so many kids sign up in her age group.  And he did an awesome job with the kids.  Her team was small, there were only five of them.  She was the only girl on her team, which initially was very upsetting to her.  But after the first practice, she was okay with it.  I really don't think we could have asked for a better bunch of kids or parents.  Boo got along so well with her team mates.  And one of her team mates had a sister Kitty's age, so they played together during practices.  By the end they were calling each other 'my sister'. 

The first practice was sweltering, then we had a long streak of freezing cold practices and games.  But by the end, the weather was great and Boo was really getting the hang of it.  I was sorry to see it come to an end.  I'm not sure if we'll be able to talk her into another round, but it was fun to do it at least once.

 

 These pictures are from her first game, she did a great job of getting in there.

 Sitting on the bench with her buddy.

Princess Party

Kitty was invited to her first birthday party this month, a Princess Party at Gymboree for a preschool friend.  Boo is friends with her older brother, so Boo was invited as well.


I try really hard to keep the princess-ness to a minimum around here.  But we still have plenty of princess dresses, and Kitty chose the Rapunzel dress.  It was a good choice, it had the shortest hem, making all the gymboree activities a little easier.

Kitty was pleased as punch to dress up and 'twirl'. 

While the cake was being served, they did a pinata.  It was very clever, instead of using a stick to break it open, it had strings for the kids to pull on to bust it open.  Boo didn't quite catch the instructions.  She marched up for her turn, and finding nothing to hit with, gave the strings a good smack with her arm.  Kitty gave the strings a delicate little tug when it was her turn.  Not only did candy tumble out, but sparkly bracelets, rings, and tiny bottles of nail polish. 

Easter, 2012

Easter was absolutely beautiful this year.  The spring weather has been unusually mild, so we could have our Easter egg hunt outdoors for a change.

On Saturday, the cousins came over for some Easter egg decorating.  Heather brought an egg painting kit, Kitty's dream come true.  She sat and methodically painted some beautiful eggs for a good 45 minutes.

 Boo utilized all egg decorating supplies and her eggs were works of art.  Then on Sunday morning, she turned 2 dozen decorated eggs into the most delicious deviled eggs we've ever had, with only minimal supervision.

 Easter Sunday was beautiful.  We spent most of the day with the cousins.  The kids were pretty happy about that.

 Rupps have quite an extensive backyard.  I think we had 2 full garbage bags full of Easter eggs to put out for the kids to collect.

 Kitty was only a little excited as she waited to start the Easter egg hunt.

It was darn near perfect.  The Easter egg hunt lasted a good long time, and the kids were finally tired of picking up eggs at about the time they were finding the last of them.  We managed to include only a minimal amount of candy in the eggs, with most of them filled with coins and stickers.  Happy all around!

March

Not quite sure what happened to March, it flew by. 

Boo had some fun theme days at school.  There was farmer day, and I let her take a horse and told her it was her 'trusty steed'.  On the way to school she asked J, "What is this called again?"  J answered, "A trusty steed.  That's what they called their horses in the old days."  And Boo replied, "Is that because they didn't know it was called a horse?"

There was also an Easter Hat Parade.  Boo wanted dog ears for her hat.  In the end it ended up looking like a flop eared rabbit hat, so it fit a little better with the Easter theme. 

Of course, Kitty then wanted some dog ears too.  Green ones.  To match her green nightgown, which had replaced her pink pajamas as the outfit of choice.

Superbowl Sundae

We hung out with the Rupps for Superbowl and had a great time.  Heather had the brilliant idea to do a Superbowl Sundae.  She dished out three quarts of ice cream, chocolate and caramel sauce, and an entire can of whipped cream. 

Isabelle and Kitty heard the words 'ice cream' and were at the table in no time flat. 

The kids (and adults) loved it, and you better believe we ate it all!

Super Bowl XLVI

 The Colts had an awful season this year. We persisted in watching every game, and were rewarded with a win or two at the very end of the season.  Thanks Dan Orlofsky. At every game, Boo would ask if Peyton Manning's neck was better.  When we replied, "No, not yet," she would sigh and say, "Well, I guess we just won't win until he comes back."

But Indianapolis was hosting the Superbowl this year, so we had that to look forward to.  I was hoping the Niners would make it to the Superbowl, but the Giants were a good consolation.  The city created a Superbowl Village, so we went downtown to see the sights the day that the Eli Manning and the rest of the Giants flew into town. 

We picked J up from work early and parked in his parking garage.  I drove up to the top of the garage to get a good shot of the JW Marriott.  

We parked and walked through the tunnels to the Marriott.  Media was everywhere.  The hotel lobbies were beautiful, and packed with media.  We stopped at the big screen over the huge fireplace in the lobby to watch the coverage of Eli Manning smiling and waving as he got off the plane in Indianapolis. 

Then we headed to Superbowl village.  We walked through the convention center to start with. 

Then we headed outside.  Walking around outside this time of year is usually unbearable.  Once my parents visited in January and it didn't get above 12 degrees the entire week they were here.  But this year, Indianapolis had the most unbelievably warm January and February I've ever experienced.

But on the downside, the ice sculptures were melting before our eyes.

They didn't even have to turn on the heated benches.

I totally wanted to ride the zipline.  But the three hour wait deterred me.

My favorite site was the gigantic Superbowl letters on Monument circle.  Don't ask me why, but this was the only thing I cared about seeing.  

 
After a couple of hours and a stop at Jimmy John's, we headed back through the convention center and up to the parking garage.  As we walked through the tunnel that connected the Marriott to the convention center, we saw a girl holding a big sign that read, "Giants Press Conference" and an arrow pointing the way.  I exclaimed, "OH!  The Giants Press Conference!" and she said (in all seriousness), "Oh yes, are you here for that?  Right this way!"  How I wish I could have rolled with that and gone to see the Giants IRL.

A few more Christmas pictures

One morning, Kitty and I visited J downtown while Boo was in school.  We walked through the statehouse to see the giant Christmas tree and got a cinnamon crunch bagel from Panera.  Best day ever.

  Lucky for  me, the beautiful red dresses Grandma made for the girls for Auntie Em's wedding still fit by the time December rolled around.  So the girls had cute, matching Christmas dresses with no effort required by me.  Win! 

 The day we took pictures, Boo wanted no part of it.  But Kitty obliged us.

 Kitty made friends with the Father Christmas I inherited from Grandma Ottley.  Everywhere she went, he went too. For the month of December, they were inseparable. 

Boo's Christmas program

Every year, Boo's preschool has a Christmas program.  And it is a darling program.  This was her second year participating.  Each class has different songs, so while the overall program was the same, her parts were new. 

She got to be one of two bell ringers for one of the songs.  We had no idea until we saw her name listed in the program.  I was actually completely impressed that she was able to keep the rhythm going for the entire song.  Never in a million years would I be able to do that.

 After the program she had a great time posing for pictures with her friends. 

But by the time we all got together for a family picture, she was done with all the attention.

 Kitty was enamoured with the manger scene, and kept stealing baby Jesus.

And don't you love those boots with the dress?